HYIP - BITCOIN

Among them is an alleged organizer by the name of Dilbar Mirsaitova. A government press service statement reads:


“It has been established that Mirsaitova D.K. and her accomplices set up a vast network of company agents, who, being active in all regions of the country, were intentionally deceiving investors by pretending to be independent marketing partners of Bulgarian company OneLife, claiming exceptional value of the so-called cryptocurrency OneCoin, sold by them.”

Mirsaitova is currently under house arrest pending the full results of the investigation into the group’s activities, which is ongoing.

The announcement is the second to surface concerning OneCoin in as many days, with Indian police arresting eighteen organizers of an investor meet-up in Mumbai last week.

As part of an investigation into alleged accounts used by OneCoin recruits to defraud investors, police seized $3 mln held in India, while a seizure in Germany netted $5 mln.

OneCoin sources continue to vehemently fight criticism meanwhile, a journalist who published an article about the German raids reporting he had received “several” legal letters from alleged lawyers supposedly connected to the outfit.

Cointelegraph reminds readers that due to multiple warnings from various governments, as well as evidence gathered from previous investigations, it recommends not investing in OneCoin in any form.

Here are the top 10 altcoins on CoinMarketCap (note that the list is changing constantly, especially in the tail part, with other altcoins like MaidSafeCoin, Golem and Augur playing musical chairs with others):

“Breaking triple digits was earmarked as one of our main goals for our five-year business plan but we’ve reached it several years earlier than expected,” CEO Sheffield Clark commented on the deployment.

“We have many more surprises in the pipeline for 2017 and are currently conducting the groundwork for rapid expansion across the country.”

Clark added that Coinsource is currently offering the “lowest rates on the market” referring to transaction fees for using its BTMs.

Such fees are often considerable, as providers place a premium on the convenience of buying or selling Bitcoins instantly, with amounts up to 10 percent of the transaction total not unheard of.

In March, Coinsource became California’s biggest BTM operator, with the Sunshine State still forming its largest market with 34 machines currently open for business.

“New York will always have a special place in our heart because it was the origin of our first successful Bitcoin ATM,” Clark added.

Worldwide, the number of BTMs is nearing 1,150, with 23 manufacturers and 212 operators serving 57 countries according to data from CoinATMRadar.

Russia recently became a notable new market, the resource currently showing three machines active.

According to CoinMarketCap.com, the market cap of all digital currencies as at Wednesday, April 26 stood at approximately $31.6 bln. Bitcoin’s dominance is put at 66.3 percent even as at the price of each unit hits $1,300.

The veteran tech entrepreneur told TorrentFreak that a “new currency” is required to tackle what the publication describes as “Bitcoin flaws.”

He says:


“My proposal isn’t really to do something to BitCoin. It really has to be a new currency. I’m going to make a cryptocurrency company. That’s my plan.”

While the exact details are still forthcoming, Cohen apparently intends to use a Proof-of-Capacity (PoC) algorithm to reduce mining expenditure. Bitcoin, by contrast, uses a Proof-of-Work algorithm.

Currencies that use PoC rely on stored data banks to verify blocks, which reduces the energy load required to run the network considerably on the miner’s end.

“Another benefit of storage based things is actually that there’s a lot less centralization in mining. So there’s a lot less concern about having a 51% attack,” he continues.

Cohen is a fair few stages behind fellow tech mogul Kim Dotcom in his entry into the cryptocurrency realm, the latter having already demonstrated the latest incarnation of his Megaupload file-sharing site.

Incorporating a Bitcoin-based content distribution system called Bitcache, the project makes direct use of Bitcoin wallets to allow content creators to receive payments for the material they publish.

In preparation for Bitcoin’s latest rival, meanwhile, Cohen says he will shortly begin spending all his time on development.

“In the next few months I’m going to devote myself full-time to the cryptocurrency stuff,” he concludes.

President of Crypto Consultant, Jason Cassidy tells Cointelegraph that he was made aware of being advertised as a speaker to this event just recently. While Cassidy expresses his excitement at seeing Blockchain technology blossom in key areas of Africa such as Lagos, he regrets that in this case, the conference itself appears to be a poorly constructed attempt at misdirection.

Cassidy explains:


“I have had no such interaction with the conference hosts and if you look at the speaker line-up, Andreas Antonopoulos is also listed and has come out and set the record straight as to his involvement.”

However, Cassidy notes that Nigeria is going to be a big player in the growth story for Blockchain in Africa, saying that he would love to go speak in Lagos on what is happening. However, obvious attempts to mislead the public like this set the entire industry back. “Hopefully as we move forward these situations become the exception to the rule,” he notes.

Stolen identity

Roland Alexander, Operations Manager(Africa & Middle East) at Crypto Consultant, who is listed as one of the speakers, also denies having any affiliation to the organizers of this event. Alexander expresses surprise at the appearance of his profile as a speaker in an event that he knows nothing about.

Alexander tells Cointelegraph:


“I was surprised to see my picture on the proposed event. I'm sure the perpetrators of this scam event munched the pictures of myself and my partner from our company's website.

It's so sad to see a thing of this sort.”

Alexander continues by noting that the awareness of the Blockchain technology is growing so fast in Nigeria and actions like this is not a good thing for this emerging market. “Many cryptocurrency enthusiasts in Nigeria have condemned this action and are working to get to the root of this,” he says.

Due diligence is a necessity

Alexander condemns this development and advises the public to always carry out due diligence before they send money to any individual or groups.

Independent crypto group, Cryptography Development initiatives in Nigeria (CDIN) have also released a disclaimer, condemning the actions of the organizers of the proposed event and dissociating itself completely from the said group.

In a statement, Adeolu Fadele, President of CDIN, says:


“This is a disclaimer to inform the friends and partners of CDIN worldwide that the publicity in question and the group behind it are in no way associated or connected with the Blockchain Nigeria initiative of CDIN nor our Blockchain Nigeria 2017 conference which we are planning. Be sure to look out for our logo or check our website for our programs in order to avoid any misleading information. We promise you to expect nothing less than the best practice and the right level of professional conduct from us at CDIN.”

Part of the program of the said conference involves the process of registration, where unsuspecting individuals will have to send Bitcoins to designated wallets.

Surrounding evidence appear to prove this as a developing trend in scamming unsuspecting and ignorant newbies within the cryptocurrency ecosystem.

Alexander concludes by calling on one and all to rise up and condemn such development in other to nip the emerging trend in the bud.

He concludes:


“It is really sad that this is a new way to scam people and it is already giving Nigeria a bad image in the crypto space. This is why we should all rise to condemn this.”

Smaller countries such as Malta, an archipelago in the central Mediterranean between Sicily and the North African coast, have begun to consider Bitcoin as a legitimate currency and revolutionary technology.

"This is the first case where the insurance industry is fully connected with fintech and introduces a new service," Kim Wook, senior managing director of digital innovation at Kyobo told the publication.

“If the service is commercialized in the future, we will be able to provide a better service by utilizing various fintech technologies."

The government will contribute financial incentives to participating members, with the initial focus to be the utilization of Blockchain for insurance-related payments.

“The core technology [...] is that of providing a service which enables an automatic payment of small amounts of insurance money, such as indemnity insurance payouts to policyholders,” Business Korea explains.

Cointelegraph reported last month that South Korea had become the second-largest Ethereum trading market in the world, highlighting increasing Blockchain interest in the country, not least from flagship tech company Samsung.

Across the border in the North, meanwhile, hackers were exposed as actively attempting to steal bitcoins from neighboring wallets.

As of press time, the asset was trading at around $13.50. Other sources saw Litecoin trade closer to $17, leading creator Charlie Lee to repost this celebratory announcement via Twitter on Saturday.



"The increased optimism comes off the back of a declaration by various Bitcoin entities on Friday to communally support SegWit on Litecoin, subject to the will of the ecosystem as a whole."

The news came in the form of a meeting in Beijing of the so-called Litecoin Global Roundtable, members of which included Bitmain, which had previously been a vocal opponent of the technology.
Rumors

While erroneous rumors of SegWit having already deployed are surfacing on social media, opinions are converging on both the future and likely price increase of Litecoin once the technology is released.

By contrast, prior to the SegWit episode beginning, Litecoin had traded at under $4 for an extended period.

The highest ever recorded price came in late 2013 as Bitcoin itself achieved record highs, with Litecoin briefly surpassing the $50 barrier.

Seeking alternatives

As the Japanese government continues to print large amounts of money, the inflation rate of the Japanese yen will likely increase proportionally and the value of the Japanese yen will likely fall in the mid-term. Analysts expect that such performance of Bitcoin’s largest exchange market could potentially affect the Bitcoin price.

An increase in Bitcoin price is usually correlated with economic instability and financial uncertainty of a large Bitcoin market. For instance, when the Chinese Bitcoin exchange market was believed to be the largest Bitcoin market in terms of trading volume, the devaluation of the Chinese yuan caused by rising US inflation rates led to a sudden surge in Bitcoin price.

In other words, as the Chinese yuan weakened, traders and investors in the region sought out for alternative wealth management products (WMPs) and safe haven assets such as Bitcoin.